Thursday, April 25, 2013

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Leslie's painting, "Kramer" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing her interview.

From Leslie's DPW Gallery page:

I am an oil painter living and working in Archer Lodge, North Carolina. I have painted professionally since 1994. My art career began as a wood carver in 1984 when I started carving duck decoys from basswood and tupelo. I eventually apprenticed under a world class cajun decoy carver and that was where I first discovered painting with oils.

I switched from carving to painting in pastel and oil mediums in the early 1990's. It was during this time that I competed in national and international competitions as a wildlife artist winning awards and selling through art galleries.

In 2001 I decided to experiment with other subjects and explored floral and still life. During that time I worked for a fine art publisher and had several collections published for the home decor market. I paint floral, still life, historic portraits, wildlife and visionary/fantasy art. My art is also licensed on products as fine art posters, bookmarks, and art tile installations.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I started my art career as a decorative wooden duck decoy carver in 1986. I was fortunate to study under a Cajun carver that taught me to paint my decoys with oil paints.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?
No, I have pretty much have done art since 1986. I had times I had to supplement my art income and work as a custom picture framer, but I always kept actively working as an artist. I think they call that burning the candle at both ends.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Leslie's interview.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

I have carved in wood, done beadwork, worked with pastels, painted with oil paint, done tile mosaics, laid ceramic tile, and worked with sheetrock. I am one of those creative types that can see something demonstrated on the DIY Network and I am sure that I can do it too. Monkey see, monkey do. As a result I can dismantle a house and put it back together... except for plumbing and electrical. I leave that to my husband. I am self taught in everything including art.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

Oil painting is the only fine art focus I have right now but I am always doing home renovation. I look at pastels in the art store and get that longing feeling but then loose it real quick when I remember having to sharpen them every three seconds. I also wish I had kept up with carving duck decoys, but I am an old woman now and there are only so many hours I can stay awake.

Oil painting is my only focus as far as art is concerned. I have so many other interests and I am always exploring life. I love to paint but I need to balance out my obsession with oil paint with other things. Painting is a tangible creative expression of my day to day experience. I need to do other things and have things happen to me to have something to say in paint. Yesterday, I was hauling grass clippings to the compost pile for my husband and a bird pooped on my head. That is how memories are made and paintings develop.

You are able to paint an incredible amount of detail on a very small canvas, how did you hone this skill?

I grid my reference to a half an inch and work down the page left to right. I am blind in my right eye and use reading glasses and an optivisor from my old carving days to be able to see what I am doing. I have been working this way for twenty years so you could definitely call it honing my skill.

I have never had the luxury of procrastination. If I don't paint, I don't eat and I like to eat.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I am disciplined and keep a tight schedule. I am up around 3:30am and I paint Monday through Friday from 8am until 3pm, fix dinner and feed the pups, and usually fall asleep while watching Nascar Race Hub on the Speed Channel.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I have Mother Nature to thank for all of the ideas I get. I have spent most of my life outdoors gardening and working with animals like horses and birds. When I am outside I am tuned in and my sixth sense is turned on. There is always something to observe and appreciate.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I have only experienced burnout twice in my life and both times I was working for someone that was "art directing" me; in other words, telling me what to paint. Because of those experiences, I learned that authenticity is more precious than gold when it comes to creativity. Finding DailyPaintworks was the best thing that ever happened to me as an artist. I can finally paint what I want. Freedom to paint what I love inspires me, feeds my soul, and is the key to my existence.

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

How to feel comfortable and confident marketing my art to a very large audience. I am used to the gallery system selling my art so art auctions are still new to me. The art galleries I worked with never gave me information about who bought my art so I was disconnected from the people that collected my art. That all changed when I joined DPW and I have to say there are some incredibly nice people out there.

It gives me peace and balance. I can paint and wash a load of clothes at the same time. I can work at home and not have to leave my pups. I can take breaks and walk in my garden. It keeps me motivated and engaged in life. Now, it gives me a connection to the world outside of my small acre of land, thanks to DPW art auctions.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Katharine's painting, "Monhegan Cottage" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing her interview.

From Katharine's DPW Gallery page:
Living along the coast of Maine allows me to explore the beautiful rocky beaches for shells, rocks, and scenes that reflect this glorious environment, which is the muse for many of my paintings. I've been an artist all my life, specializing in painting, and studied fine art at three universities. These days, I not only paint and exhibit, but I also instruct artists in creativity and technique.

My work appears in hundreds of private and corporate collections, and also in notable books and magazines in this country and abroad. In national and international juried competitions, I've won top awards, and am a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, Missouri Watercolor Society, and the Northeast Watercolor Society. Although my academic training is in oils, I've learned to love watercolor just as much and work in both mediums. Painting daily, for me, is as important as breathing.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

Before I entered kindergarten, my parents identified me as an artist and provided me with lessons in color theory and design. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing and painting.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Katharine's interview.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

There was only one time when I stopped. Previous to that, I had studied fine art at various academic institutions, including three universities, and enjoyed making art. By the time I was forty years old, I wanted to learn more about the landscapes I was painting. So, I returned to college to study geology, climatology, and oceanography. I completed both the undergraduate and graduate degrees in six years and just didn’t have time to paint.

However, as soon as I finished those degrees and landed a faculty job at a college, I returned to painting and managed to teach and paint for a number of years. I retired from college teaching four years ago when I found that my career in art demanded more time. At this point, I can’t imagine ever stopping again, short of the grave.

My initial academic training was in oils, acrylics and various drawing mediums. Eventually, I picked up watercolors and gouache on my own. Interestingly, when I attended college decades ago, the art professors didn’t consider watercolor to be a serious medium and I received no academic training in it. Although I did study sculpture, I’ve always preferred painting. The genres I’ve experimented with include both objective and non-objective across the spectrum of possibilities.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

Just about everything has stuck since I use it all in one way or another depending upon which series I’m painting. Each concept that I want to express requires a particular technique and medium to best express it. I like to be flexible.

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

This is a tough question to answer since I’m so focused on what I’m doing now. However, creating art is an exploration all by itself and I’m certain that new pathways will be found as I continue this daily practice.

In fact, yes I have! I fell in love with the ocean as a child and even spent a few years as an adult living on a sailboat. Presently, I live by the ocean and can’t imagine living anywhere else. However, most of my paintings over the past five decades have had little to do with the marine or coastal environment. It’s only been recently, the past five years, that I’ve revisited the theme. Because I walk to the ocean every day, it speaks to me and I must express that.

What does procrastination look like for you?

I don’t procrastinate when it comes to painting. I love it and work in my studio every day if I’m not traveling. When I go away, I take along a sketch pad or even some paint supplies. When I’m not painting I’m thinking about painting. I guess you could say that I’m obsessed with it!

The real problem is making time for everything else aside from art. Painting is a lifestyle that emerged from the lifelong habit of showing up every day in my studio. For me, being an artist means doggedly pursuing artmaking. It’s a discipline.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I paint in a series and spend a great deal of time formulating the concept for a series before I begin it. Often, I’ll stick with a series for five years or more. I’ll also paint more than one series simultaneously. Presently, I’m painting one series in oils and another in watercolor. Additionally, I teach artists from all over the country about how to formulate concepts for their work and how to develop their own “voice.”

Although my ideas for paintings of the Maine coast are derived from my environment, I seldom paint what I actually see. Rather, I paint what I remember and reinterpret. This transforms reality into “art.” My other ongoing series, “The Laws of Nature” (which may be viewed on my website: www.kacartwright.com) is done entirely from my imagination with no external references or models.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

Because I work in a series, I find that when I have nothing more to say or contribute to that series I stop and move on to another series. This always keeps it fresh. The shortest series I’ve ever painted was only twelve paintings. The longest was sixty paintings before they became redundant and I had to stop. Additionally, it’s easy to avoid burnout because I’m always using my imagination rather than imitating someone else. Our minds have an endless number of ideas and they’re exciting!

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

To trust my imagination and intuition. This is the only way for me to produce unique and meaningful art and avoid imitation.

What makes you happiest about your art?

The privilege and joy of making it, and the privilege and joy of teaching others how to make it.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.

To enter to win Sharman's painting, "The Float" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing her interview.

From Sharman's DPW Gallery page:

I am a self taught artist (well! unless you count high school which was a very long time ago). I reside in a small, green (color) dairy town in western Washington with my uber talented sculptor husband. I love to create with anything that involves color. Oil paint is my drug of choice. It is messy, smells and makes a mess. Fits me too perfectly.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I am VERY competitive. I was about 10 years old and a friend’s older sister was getting lots of attention for her drawing skills. I just figured (in my 10 year old brain) that I could do it to. Turns out I was right. Math, art, athletics…just made sense to me.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Sharman's interview.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

Oh, heck yes! I have no formal training unless you count high school. I got married at 18 and pretty much gave up all art except sewing for the next 12 years. After I got divorced I started to dabble but still very erraticly. In 1987, I met my current husband. He’s a sculptor. That changed EVERYTHING. He can’t live without art. Being in an environment with someone so talented is very inspiring.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

Graphite, pen and ink, ANY thing with color except encaustic (there’s still time…) I even consider cake frosting as part of MY art. Fabric is an obsession, ceramics a mystery, and bronze work, torture.

I love oil paint! To the point that my colored pencils, pastels, oil pastels and watercolors think they are orphans. However, I quit my “day job” last September so with more time available I will most likely start to dabble again. I have 30 lbs. of clay, 3 sewing machines and very busy hands. My studio houses the tools for all of the above so it would be criminal not to put them to use.

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I think ceramics and glazes. We have a kiln. Vessels fascinate me, but I’m sure I’ll tackle some figure work too. Oh! And then there’s bronze patinas! Yum.

That’s an awkward one for me. I never really think of it that way. Color drives my work. When I’m scrubbing toilets in my “daily life” paint seems like a mirage on a distant horizon. That said, being in our garden (we have 5 acres and garden 2.5) inspires in a way I can’t put words to.

What does procrastination look like for you?

A dirty house, weeds running amuck, daily responsibilities. Oh! And the days I don’t exercise. Life rule: no exercise, no art! Period.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

Everyone pokes fun at me because of my lists. Not having the structure of going to an office anymore meant I needed a way to ensure I didn’t get lost. Hence a daily “schedule”. It looks rigid from the outside but it really isn’t. I could have more studio time if I gave up some of the other things I commit to.

Wow! Have you looked at my blog? Not much consistency. I never go anywhere without a camera. I even shoot through the windshield if necessary. Once we were behind a dark green truck with fishing rods out the back. One had the classic red and white bobber dangling along behind it. I couldn’t wait to paint that. I love portrait work; human and animal.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

There are so many marvelous artists participating online these days. Look a little, read a little, play a little. Some of what you take in stays, some doesn’t enhance what you’re about. If it becomes dull, there is no one to blame but the person in the mirror.

How important experimentation is. If you take yourself too serious you miss the opportunity to fail. NO ONE does a good painting every time. No one. Realizing that at the first stroke allows me to paint away.

What makes you happiest about your art?

There’s a special magic about facing a blank surface, lump of clay or batch of frosting. Terror. Someone once said “it’s not hard to DO the work, it’s hard to start”. That is so true! Once it begins to fall together the “happy” begins. Going from nothing to a full blown painting is pretty exhilarating. Also, having so much at my disposal. We have our own art foundry. I can paint, cook, sew, do ceramics, cast in bronze or plant flowers. Most days, the hardest challenge I face is deciding.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Clinton's painting, "Apples and Grapes III" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing his interview.

From Clinton's DPW Gallery page:

Clinton’s work is currently being shown in many private collections, both national and international. His collectors include CEO's, actors and actresses, several well-known artists, prominent businessmen and women, and government officials. He was featured in the February 2009 issue of American Artist magazine and recently on the cover of the "Best Of Artists' Annuals". Clinton has taught painting and drawing workshops all over the country and in Brisbane, Australia.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I started painting very late, I was 27 at the time. When I was a kid I wanted to draw comic books. I started copying drawings of comics at a very young age. When I was in High School, I still wanted to get into comics. My art teacher loved Van Gogh and I remember thinking, this Van Gogh guy isn't funny at all. While everyone else was copying Van Gogh, I did a giant drawing of Calvin and Hobbs. This resulted in my getting a C in high school art, something I like to laugh about.

After that, I went to the Joe Kubert School of Graphic Art which is an entire school full of comic book geeks who couldn´t get into a real school. After I spent one year there, I transferred to the School of Visual Arts in NYC. We had to submit a portfolio and then there was an interview. My interview was held by Jack Endewelt, the chair at that time of the illustration department. He looked at my portfolio and said "Well, you can draw, so we can't put you in fine art." He asked if I would mind if he made my schedule for me. I said sure and he picked out all of my classes. I really made no decisions at all, everything just sort of happened after that.

My Junior year at SVA, I did an internship with Walt Disney Feature Animation which led to a mentorship after I graduated. There is a really funny story there but it will have to wait. I spent the next three years focused on nothing but getting that job at Disney. When it didn't happen, I was crushed. I was teaching a figure drawing class at Scottsdale Artist's School at the time, and a fellow instructor suggested that while I was figuring out what to do next, why not study oil painting? And so I did.

After the let-down from Disney, I spent a few months not knowing what to do. Once I decided to study oil painting though, nothing has slowed me down since. I paint every day for at least six hours a day, often painting for ten or even twelve hours.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

I've worked in oil, pastel, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, and pencil.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

Currently, I only paint in oil and draw. I just don't have the time to do anything else right now.

Your art is incredibly lifelike, and yet still looks very much like a painting. How did you find this happy medium in your style?

Thank you! When I was in art school, a great instructor of mine, Sal Catalano, told us never to worry about style. Just paint and draw and the style will find you. I really believe that is true. I never worked towards or tried to create a style, it just sort of happened. The lifelike or animated quality of my work comes from the love of acting and animation. I love old movies and music. My favorite art book is On Acting by Sanford Meisner. I never cared much for still life paintings. They always seemed stiff, boring, and contrived.

My teacher, Daniel Greene, told me that the best way to learn painting is through still lifes. I decided that if I was going to do this I would have to make it fun for me. I created a mini stage and curtains for my still life set ups and pretended that the fruits and vegetables were actors on a stage. I often line them up like the play is over and they are taking a bow. This is why the long ones are titled "Curtain Call".

I always try to find the objects at the market that have the most character and personality. When I am painting, I try not to think about how the painting looks, but focus more on the character of the fruit or vegetables, and the personalities I have given them. I don't change their personalities, I try to capture them. I think of every painting I do as though it were a portrait of that thing. I see so many paintings of apples for example where it looks like the painter took one apple and painted it over and over again in the same painting. I never understood that. Apples are all different shapes, sizes, and colors - just like people. I like to put them all in the same painting and see if they get along.

Procrastination is what happens to every other aspect of my life because of painting. I think to myself: I have to go to the store, clean the house, answer twenty or thirty emails, get an oil change, etc. and then I think, well I can paint for another hour or two, and then the other stuff doesn't get done.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I put it first. Everything else can wait. And usually does. I used to eat with a sketchbook at the table. I was that crazy. I must be getting older because I have realized that actually enjoying a meal is important too.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

The little fruit and vegetable paintings need nothing more than going to the market and looking for a fruit with some personality. You do have to be careful where you say things like that, however. You can't walk into a grocery store and say to the clerk, "I'm looking for a fruit with some personality." I do like to walk up to the check-out line with an apple or pear resting snugly in the palm of my hand, like a wounded bird, and calmly ask the check out person to please not break off the stem, it's the star of my show. The look is always priceless.

The larger mask paintings come together much differently. I love to drive long distances; it's my idea of a vacation. Just me and the road, nothing else to do but drive. I do almost all of my creating and layout in my head while driving. Right now I have more ideas for paintings then I have years enough to paint.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I'm not sure you can avoid burnout. I used to confuse burnout with a slump, and there is a big difference. It is absolutely vital to recognize which one is happening. The only way to beat a slump is to work through it. By slump I mean that everything you paint is complete garbage (to you). Other people may not notice, and say things like "it looks great, what are you talking about?" But you know it stinks. I paint twice as much during a slump. The good thing is that after it is over, you will have gotten better. It just seems to be how it works. Some people reading this will say "YES!" and others will not understand, you either go through it or you don't. Burnout on the other hand needs a visit to the beach and a drink with rum in it.

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I'm learning so many things right now, it is difficult to just list one. I'm still learning how the paint will hit the surface. I'm not quite at the point yet where I have complete control and it still surprises me sometimes. Recently, I have gone back to painting portraits in black and white to increase my understanding of values and focus more on the paint itself. Currently, I am working on a series of ocean paintings. I am doing them without drawing anything first, which is also new to me. I'm always learning new things about the business end of it and the digital stuff is hard for me because I don't really know what I am doing.

My immediate response was to think "painting!" but I'm not sure that is an accurate answer. Painting itself doesn't really make me happy all of the time. Painting is often very difficult and frustrating. Problems can sometimes take days or even weeks to figure out. I'm so happy just to be able to paint every day. I like waking up at 10am, having a cup of coffee and going for a long walk on the beach. Then, I start painting around noon and work until midnight.

I love that I have a job that makes that lifestyle possible. Since I do not have a day job, it requires sales. I would say that a good sale actually makes me happy. To me, a sale is the highest form of compliment. The majority of people work very hard for their money, so when someone is willing to spend some on something I created, it feels great. A few years ago I had a social worker send me an email in regards to a painting she saw on my website. She loved my work but didn't have very much money. She asked if she could send me $20.00 a month until it was paid for. It took her a year to pay for it and she sent me an email telling me how worth the wait it was. That made me very happy.